


A Cauterizing Presence

by RangerKimmy



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 16:10:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3616218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RangerKimmy/pseuds/RangerKimmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is not an easy task, being Inquisitor. It is lonely. It is trying. Tiring. But he is there. Listening. Helping. And she is thankful.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cauterizing Presence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ghosty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghosty/gifts).



The Inquisitor never calls for Cole when she is at her lowest, the weight of her responsibility to the Inquisition, to the Fade, to the entire blasted world bearing down upon her shoulders like an unbreakable, merciless boulder. Sometimes she’s in her quarters, or on the battlements, or strolling along the massive stone bridge that is the lone entrance to the massive Skyhold fortress. But she is always alone, always feeling the saddest, or angriest, or most conflicted. And then he appears.

His greeting is like a thin strand of silken thread, a wisp of a breeze that gently calls to her attention. He is noninvasive, probing but careful--meaningful.

She looks up at him, balancing along the battlement walls, perched upon the bridge, or perhaps sitting atop her desk. Only when she acknowledges him does he turn toward her, tilt his head up, reveal pale blue eyes that search far past her face and instead to the deepest confines of her soul, gently pinching the pain and drawing it out, away.

They talk. The Inquisitor sits with Cole, expressing her fears, her doubts, her pains, her worries. Cole listens. And when he feels she is done, he mends her.

“It hurts to lose so many. It hurts to see people die in your name. For your name. For you. But they see hope for an end in you. A bright, brief light of the Fade stretches before them. Death is there, in the light, but before death there is a figure. Small, elven, but powerful. Radiant. Grasping the flag of the Inquisition. Her. They smile. She will save us. And then--gone.”

“But what if I don’t save them, Cole? What if I fail?”

His hand is freckled, just like his face, and it is wrapped in worn bandages. His fingers reach out and graze the skin of her hand before he gently rests his atop hers. She looks up at him and his steady gaze stills her.

“They are dead. But in their death, you were there. And they met death with happiness. You already saved them. You have helped.” His thin, pale fingers curled around hers. Reassuring. Tethering her to the world. “Whether you fail or not doesn’t matter to them now. You were--are--what they needed.”

Sometimes his words sting, or make her cry, or make her feel even angrier. But there is something soothing, something with like a cleansing fire, in the pain he pulls from her. He is a cauterizing presence, and the Inquisitor knows without really acknowledging it that she needs him.

“Thank you, Cole,” she says softly when he is done. His hand leaves hers then, and he looks down at his feet, tilting his head so the brim of his hat shields his eyes once more.

“I am here to help,” he replies. “I will always help you. So long as you need me.”

She doesn’t notice he’s gone until she looks up a moment later and finds him missing. His spirit lingers in the air, and if she reaches out to where he once was, she could swear there is a tingling sensation in her fingers. Sometimes she wonders if he’s really gone, or hiding. To wait and see if she really is better. So she says “Thank you” once more, gentle, quiet, just in case.

And he is there. Every time. Lingering. Watching. Relieved.

**Author's Note:**

> I literally wrote this in like 15 minutes idk. It's not really flat out "Cole/Inquisitor" so much as it's possibly IMPLIED I guess??? You can read it as romance or not, because I didn't have either in mind. I just wanted to dream up a little interaction between them. XOXO


End file.
